At Halo's Gate
by Asgardian Dovahkiin
Summary: As the Human-Covenant War rages on, the hubris of humanity opens a gate into the bowels of the nightmarish realm of Hell. Only one man can go knee-deep in the dead to stop the invasion on the red planet and save humankind from a second invading force. Cover art by Superhermit from deviantArt.
**At Halo's Gate**

* * *

A UNSC Pelican dropship flew above the red fields of the Martian landscape.

"Pelican 353 requesting permission to dock in docking station 21."

"Roger 353, welcome back."

The pelican approached the opening bay door of the Martian base, flying inside the dropship safely made contact with the steel floor, its rubber tires making a soft sound against the metal. The bay gate closed, pressurizing the bay once again.

The dropship's door opened, out of it a Marine and a man wearing a black military uniform walked out of the ship. The marine was wearing a full body suit, the standard UNSC Marines BDU and was holding onto a big black case that had the Office of Naval Intelligence's logo on it.

Entering into the base, they were met by several private security officers, they scanned them for anything out of the ordinary and were later allowed into the main base. "Welcome to Delta Labs." The receptionist welcomed them, the young woman wore a blue/gold dress and had her black hair done well, and it contrasted well with her fair skin tone.

"Ma'am." The man in the black uniform replied.

"The science personnel is waiting for you." She said.

Following her, the duo entered a big conference room with various white coated scientists and a handful of guards. On top of the large table's middle section was the logo of the United Aerospace Corporation, one of the UNSC's highest suppliers of interstellar technology and the ones responsible for reverse-engineering the Point Defense Gauntlet of the alien Covenant into the MJOLNIR Mk. V armor.

"Commander, it is a pleasure to see you again!" One of the scientists said, he was odd looking, clearly not had very long nights of sleep. The man in the black uniform, the Commander, sat down on the far end of the long table. His marine bodyguard gave him the black case.

"This is the latest in arms technology that Misriah Armory has developed." The Commander said, opening the case. "The BFG9000."

The science team was in awe and began to have doubts about their upcoming project, and the funds that the UNSC and UEG would stop giving them now. "As you know, Misriah Armory is one of our highest bidders in our war against the Covenant, their HQ also located here on Mars and with them preparing to mass produce this fine piece of tech…one that they were able to reverse-engineer from Fuel Rod Cannons…the same kind of plasma artillery that you failed to do…will gain a blank check once the folk in HIGHCOM and the Security Council get the good news."

A blank check…for one of the UAC's biggest commercial rivals…the looney looking scientist stood up. "That's small potatoes compared to what we have achieved." He said. The science team became silent upon the man's words.

"Are you speaking of the monetary black hole that is your 'teleporter'?" The Commander asked in a not so pleasant way.

"It has been completed." The scientist responded with a dark grin on his face.

With a surprised look on his face, the Commander spoke, "Then you're not worried if we test it?"

"Of course not. Just let us prepare." The scientist responded. One of the scientists next to him stood and approached him.

"But Dr. Betruger, the teleporter…the one at Alpha Labs it's not yet complete." He whispered onto the scientist's ear.

"Is there a problem, doctor?" The Commander asked.

"No, not a single one. You can expect things to happen, commander…great things indeed." Betruger replied.

* * *

 **Three Hours Later**

The UNSC All Under Heaven, a massive carrier, hovered above the red planet…the UNSC had lost contact with the Martian colony there and with both the UAC and Misriah complexes located there as well.

The carrier had been sent from the Home Fleet of Earth to investigate the situation, fearing a Covenant attack on the red planet.

"Still no contact sir." A navy officer said, "Nothing but static down there."

"I'm not sure what to think of this." The Captain of the vessel, Cpt. Ramirez, said as he looked at the planet's readings. "A few hours ago we were getting standard readings…the normal stuff. Now, the whole planet has gone to…"

"We must re-establish contact with Mars, captain, it's the closest world to Earth and it would be a huge loss in our fight against the Covenant." Lord Hood cut him off, speaking through the radio link of the ship.

"I am preparing teams to respond immediately." The captain said, "Four ODST squads, and one special delivery."

"Ah yes, the transfer. At least we will get this mess sorted out with him."

"We will be sending them feet first into hell, sir. Don't you worry about them."

Heavy footsteps rocked the halls towards the drop off area where the ODSTs prepared to get inside their pods. The elite soldiers were caught on awe as they saw the green armored goliath that walked among them. His gold visor reflected their helmetless faces, no human expression on it, just the golden void of a killing machine.

The leading ODST, Sgt. Pete Stacker approached the super soldier, "Master Chief, we will heading towards Mars City. Your drop off location is here." He gave him a chip with the locations of the Martian colony.

"That won't be necessary, Sergeant." A female voice came out of the helmet's speakers of the super soldier. This surprised the old marine sergeant, believing this thing to be a man. "Oh, I am sorry, my name is Cortana, and I am the Master Chief's companion AI."

The sergeant quickly composed himself, "Yes of course, ma'am. I am sure you know that the Chief's mission is to land on the UAC's hangar?"

"Affirmative." The Master Chief replied instead, loading his assault rifle and placing his magnum on his side.

The teams got inside their respective SOEIVs, the famous ODST drop pods, and prepared to make landfall. The screens on the side of the hatch door of the drop pod came alive as the ship passed over the planet. "Alright team, I want this done squeaky clean. Priority one is to clear the base of any possible Insurrection or Covenant hostiles. Second is to find any survivors, civilians specially. And third is to secure and/or destroy any piece of tech that has been compromised as the Cole Protocol states." Stacker briefed the ODSTs, with the Master Chief listening.

The UNSC All Under Heaven released her drop pods, they fell unto the red planet.

* * *

The Master Chief's pod violently entering atmosphere and rushing pass the Martian clouds, crashing right into the outside of the UAC's Alpha Base's hangar. The SOEIV's hatch door was kicked off by the super soldier.

He jumped off, being greeted by the hostile Martian environment, thankfully his MJOLNIR Mk. VI armor allowed him to tough through hostile worlds, even the vacuum of space. The Master Chief approached a nearby maintenance door that led inside the complex.

The super soldier opened the door, no security lockdown, something was indeed wrong here. Stepping inside, he saw that there had been some kind of battle…with several dismembered bodies of the security guards lying on the floor.

The Master Chief stepped through carnage filled room, to look through the blood stained window at the Martian landscape outside. The complex extended far, there was a monorail system that connected the labs towards the other areas of the UAC complexes.

"Uh…I'm getting really freaking weird messages, Chief. All over this place…I don't know…actually making me feel a bit odd." Cortana said as she analyzed the data and security feed of the Alpha Labs. "Something really bad happened here…find a terminal you can hook me up to."

The Master Chief walked down the corridor towards the labeled security room, the automatic door opened. There to meet him were the security guards, but they looked…dead but they were still standing holding onto their shotguns and rifles. Their pale rotting faces with blood shot eyes, they spotted the Chief and immediately started to fire at him. The bullets bouncing off the Master Chief's energy shields. More confused than worried, the Chief nevertheless fired at the former guards with his pistol, the shots blowing the undead guards' head up like pineapples.

The Chief approached a nearby computer and placed Cortana's chip into one of them. The hologram of Cortana, looking like a young blue woman, she began to look at the recording of the past four hours. "Look for the origin of this." Chief said.

Cortana searched through several tapes of recordings until she stumbled onto the security feeds of the teleporter of the Alpha Labs. Scientists crowded around the control room of the test chamber as they got directions from the Delta Labs… "Apparently, there was a teleporting test going on the minutes before the incident occurred. Alpha Labs and Delta Labs' teleporters were going to teleport what seemed to be an apple, with the Phobos Labs." Cortana explained as the video footage continued on the monitor.

The teleporter began to function, with much anticipation the scientists activated the drives of the Shaw-Fujikawa FTL Drive that powered the entire teleporter. Light began to come out of the teleporter, but then something happened. Instead of the apple appearing in Delta Labs, the light was immediately replaced by a black void that ripped through the fabric of space. What seemed to be flaming horned skulls, hundreds of them, began to spew out of the hole. The video feed ended right there, but the audio kept going. The screams of the science teams and security personnel littered the audio…. "That was one of the many portals…the biggest one is located here. Where Phobos Labs was located."

"Was?" The Chief asked, not even stunned by the horror that was around him.

"The entire complex disappeared…replaced by something else." Cortana replied, "Put me back in your head, I have what we need."

The Chief took Cortana's chip off from the computer and back into his helmet. The lights flickered as the entire place shook catching the Chief by surprise. A sinister laugh resonated through the entire room, even inside the Chief's radio.

The lights were dead and the entire place was dark. The Master Chief turned his helmet's flashlights on. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! SO THE UNSC SENDS THEIR ARMORED ANGEL TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK. THEN, SPARTAN…WELCOME TO YOUR **DOOM**."

The twisted voice told the Master Chief through his radio feed. Within the room, the Chief was then surrounded by four teleporting red lights which were followed by screeches. Holding onto his assault rifle, the Master Chief was met with beings that he had never seen before.

Without hesitation, the SPARTAN-II super soldier emptied his magazine…the muzzle flash of the assault rifle lighted the room as bullets flew into the air impacting the flesh of the monsters that surrounded the Master Chief. Still the monster were relentless, throwing fireballs at the Chief. Each fireball making his shields flare up, no much damage, but if they kept hitting then it could turn bad fast.

The Chief ran at one of them, grabbing it by the head…the monster looked at its reflection on the Chief's golden visor, red eyes and brown leathery skin adorned with horns…horrible. The SPARTAN twisted its neck and ripped it off its body. Then used the head as a football and threw it to the nearest monster that was still standing, the head struck the other on the face, giving the Chief time to move lightning fast at it and digging his armored fist into the beast's stomach. Falling dead on the ground, the Chief reloaded his gun and proceeded quickly into the next area to avoid being ambushed again,

Coming into what seemed to be a staircase leading upwards, more undead guards halted his advance. The Chief simply filled them with lead, continuing forward into a room full of radioactive waste. Perhaps during the incident several barrels of nuclear waste were spilled into this room Cortana thought, her theory was correct upon seeing tubes leaking radioactive waste into the underhalls of the room from the outside. The MJOLNIR armor allowed the Chief to safely walk over the radioactive sludge.

Another horned monster, one of those annoying imps, teleported near the super soldier. It began to throw fireballs, with one of them hitting the Chief whose back was turned. Feeling the impact, the Chief quickly turned around and fired his rifle, aiming at the monster's head. BLAM! The thing's head exploded and its body fell dead on the floor full of the sludge.

Nearing the exit towards the next area of the Alpha Labs, the Chief was once again blocked by several undead. This time the former scientists, who walked slowly towards him. The Chief pushed them aside, with enough force that their bodies shattered upon impact onto the walls leaving just gibs on the floor. He entered the exit, a transport leading him away from the hangar and into the nearby Nuclear Plant that fed that Alpha Labs.

"This isn't something like we ever seen before…we have to get to the Phobos Anomaly!" Cortana told the Master Chief. "We can stop whatever is invading Mars there."

The Chief silently nodded as the transport stopped.


End file.
